In this week’s edition of the Friday Sports Dump, the NFL is back to it’s old tricks and two players in the NBA make an effort to sully a benchmark season.
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Earlier this week, a Maricopa County grand jury indicted the Phoenix Suns’ Marcus and Markieff Morris on felony aggravated assault charges for allegedly beating a man outside a city recreation center in January.
I don’t have an explanation for it.
Is it because I was raised primarily by my mother? Is it because my life has been blessed that the need for violence was never a necessity? Am I missing something?
I grew up in a place where fighting was the norm. Look at someone the wrong way, a fight broke out. Say the wrong thing, fists are flying. There were no words of discourse, it was either peace or violence. Yet, somehow at 34 years of age, I have never been in a fight.
So maybe that’s the reason I don’t understand why people need to resort to fisticuffs to handle a dispute.
Do you get an overwhelming sense of relief when you bloody up another human being?
Is there a significant resolution once someone is laying on the pavement unconscious, or worse?
Details out of Phoenix are murky, per the usual, but what has been gathered says that Erik Hood was leaving a high school basketball game on Jan. 24 when he was approached by a friend of the Morris brothers.
Hood told police the man was speaking to him when he was punched in the back of the head.
Hood ran to his car but fell down. Hood told police that the man who had approached him held him down while four men, including the Morris twins, kicked and hit him repeatedly, according to the police report. All five then left the area in a Rolls-Royce Phantom as bystanders began to appear.
A friend of Hood’s drove him to a hospital where he was treated for a fractured nose, abrasions and a large lump on his head.
Hood says he used to be close to the Suns’ brothers until he began courting their mother through text message.
Now I understand the need to be protective of one’s mom, but to physically assault someone after a high school basketball game? You are NBA players with kids who idolize you and this is the image you want to portray?
The Phoenix Suns should be embarrassed of the actions of two of its players and should discipline them accordingly. If not for the sake of their franchise, for the fans of the game. While players may not be role models, they’re constant visibility make it almost impossible for fans of the game to not follow their lead. Hopefully, in the case of the Morris twins, they’ll turn the other cheek.
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Meanwhile, in the Pacific Northwest, Portland Trailblazer Damian Lillard is a shining example of using your fame and power to make a difference in peoples lives, both young and old. In this case, old.
Lillard surprised Creekside Village retirement home by sending them pairs of his new signature Adidas shoe, the D Lillard 1.
The Trailblazers may be down in their opening round series against the Memphis Grizzlies, but Portland is up thanks to having a player like Lillard lead their franchise.
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At this point, we know what the NFL is about: $$$$$$$.
This point could not be driven home any clearer than with the recent developments with the San Francisco 49ers.
The 49ers are offering the city of Santa Clara $15 million for 10 acres of nearby land currently used as fields for a youth soccer league.
This is what happens when you agree to publicly fund a stadium for an ownership group that rakes in over $280 million per year. Once you give a little, the greedy want the whole damn lot.
From the San Jose Mercury News:
“How many more concessions does the city have to make to the 49ers?” asked Tino Silva, the new president of the youth league. “This is the 49ers — who are supposed to be good neighbors, keep their word and do what’s right. This is everything but that.”
Silva said the roughly 2,000 kids in his league practice or compete on the three fields almost every weekday and most weekends during soccer season. He fears losing access to the fields would force the league to downsize dramatically.
“That’s 80 percent of our season,” he said. “Where are we supposed to go?”
The city’s school district would receive $3 million to improve different soccer fields for the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League. Most likely they’ll take it because what city would turn down $3 million?
As for the kids?
Who gives a shit, am I right 49ers?
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While the owners of the most powerful professional sports league continue to run amok like rats in a sewer, the NFL players are what keep us watching.
In Houston on Tuesday night 12-year-old Nicholas Connor brought the house down with his rendition of The Star Spangled Banner.
One admirer was Houston Texan JJ Watt, who made it a point to tell Nicholas how impressed he was. Check out the 12-year-olds reaction.
https://vine.co/v/eavLph7O5LD
Now tell me professional athletes shouldn’t be held to a higher standard than others. Tell me regardless of whether or not the Morris twins are found guilty there should be significant consequences for their role. Tell me each and every one of those professional athletes who get into trouble season after season should not be taught a lesson.
JJ Watt gets it. Why don’t the rest of us?
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Photo Credit: David Zalubowski/AP
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